Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Groomer by Jon Athan

56 reviews

breanaueltzen's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

alicia_meyer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Deeply disgusting and disturbing. Won’t read this author again, but the story was important and even though it haunts me, I’m glad I read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Trafficking

nikrib's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Well… where to begin… This book is definitely not for everyone and falls into the splatterpunk genre. This narrative was difficult to get through for a while, given the topics and themes, but after the specific chapters (you’ll know when you read them) it’s all more of a vengeful narrative from there on out and less splatterpunk shocking. The story felt a tad like an extreme horror thriller, following the protagonist on his journey. The characters aren’t relatable, for obvious reasons, but the author does try to get the reader to feel the dark decent of the protagonist as he tries to find his daughter. Some reviews state that the actions of the protagonist are too extreme, but I’m sure there are parents out there that can somewhat feel the agony of the protagonist. Also, there’s been studies and articles depicting the brokenness psychologically a person can go through when incident/crimes like these occur, so following along with the protagonist’s decent and psychological break was intense. 

This book’s topic is taboo to even mention amongst each other, much like cannibalism, but I believe this narrative can be seen as eye opening to naive people that don’t understand the grand scale, vastness, or frequency of these types of crimes. I wouldn’t say I “like” the story (that would be strange way to put it) but it did what it was meant to, scare, disgust, and shock. Similar to why people go to haunted houses or spooky events, to get scared, shocked, etc. 

My only qualm is that the author uses redundant descriptive verbiage to build scenes, it can get a tad annoying. Overall, solid story, not for the faint of heart or those with many “triggers”. Venture into this book with caution, it is splatterpunk genre after all. The epilogue at the end is a quick excerpt by the author and was interesting to get their take on the process and the book as a whole.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

cheywood97's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

rainbowdrank's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

What did I just read? 

This book is awful, from the subject matter to the writing. All the stuttering and stammering was annoying, there were huge plot holes, typos galore and it was over-the-top graphic. 

I had trouble finishing this one but had to just to see how it ended. Wish I had never started it though.

Very, very, very graphic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

teganberryyy's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

sammydc's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Murder

jessie84567's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Murder

_soulfullyrich's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Read at your own risk! The first few chapters are the hardest. If you can make it through, the rest of the story is tolerable. There's A LOT of gore and torture. The author's letter at the end helps.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

your_poisonous_flower's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was incredibly disturbing, creepy, horrifying... and amazing. the writing was so good I really felt like I was looking at the depravity that was happening. there is nothing i could change to make it a better book. if you can handle it, you should read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs

extremely graphic